Help! I’m surrounded by stressed out teenagers.

What’s more, I am one of those stressed out teenagers. It’s almost the end of May. The sun is shining. The birds are chirping. The high school students are still stuck inside their stuffy classrooms with no end in sight. (To those of you who have made it to the heaven of summer, please don’t rub it in our faces. It’s not nice.) Sitting in English class — a class I usually love — I have the sudden urge to throw my notebook on the ground and sprint out the nearest doors. I suspect that if I were to give in to the impulse, the rest of the school would soon follow.

Junior year has arguably been the busiest year of my life, and it’s not over yet. Though June is fast approaching, there are still projects to complete, exams to study for, and futures to worry about. All around me, classmates are at their breaking points. Conversations inevitably turn into excuses for us to whine about our homework. Tempers blaze like dry forests in hot summers, and tears are shed over dilemmas that we would have laughed at in September. Every day adds more weight to our barbells, and I wonder when we will finally collapse.

To all of you who read the first two paragraphs of this article and knew exactly what I was talking about, I’m telepathically sending you a hug. I have a feeling you need it. Keep reading, though, because I’m here to give you a few words of advice.

1. Talk about it.

Yes, I’m giving you full licence to complain. Life is hard. Being a teenager is hard. Being a teenager that has to juggle school, extracurriculars, friends, family, and more is even more terrible, but it’s my reality, and probably yours too. Go find an isolated area, preferably outdoors. Make sure there’s no one who can hear you, then scream as loud as you can. Repeat until stress levels have decreased. If damaging your vocal cords is a concern for you, I find stomping loudly to have similar stress-relief effects.

Make sure you actually talk about it with someone who will listen, too. Whether it be a parent, friend, stuffed animal, or poster of Ed Sheeran, find someone or something who will listen to your worries. The majority of the time, I don’t complain to make someone solve my problems for me. I just need them to sit there and listen as I vent.

2. But don’t forget about other people.

Everyone has their own struggles and their own pressures. Sometimes, we get so caught up in our personal grievances that it seems like our problems are worse than everyone else’s. When we are so focused on ourselves, we forget to ask about how other people are doing. I know I’m guilty of this. So take a look around you. Notice if your friend has been super quiet lately, or if your little sister got into a fight with her best friend. Ask them about it. They probably need someone to listen to them. And it’ll take your mind off of your own worries for a while.

3. Sleep. (Now’s your cue to say, “Yes, Mom.”)

Sleep deprivation has the same effects on a driver as alcohol does. For students, lack of sleep means a decline in memory, logic, and general happiness. When I’m tired, every conversation I have is simply a chance to moan about just how exhausted I am. Life of the party? Not when I’m sleepy. Save everyone else the pain of listening to you, and actually get 8 hours of sleep for once. It’ll even be better for you than studying for that extra hour.

Leave the phone out of your bedroom too. This is probably the most difficult piece of advice I have for you (and the piece I find hardest to follow through with in my own life). You might have to pry it out of your own fingers, but scrolling through Tumblr at 1 o’clock in the morning is just going to make you a wreck in the morning.

4. Take time off.

Even at your busiest, give yourself some time to relax. Sitting at your desk and studying for hours on end is just going to drain you. Do homework for 45 minutes or so, then take 5 minutes to stand up, drink some water, and stop staring at a computer screen. If you’re feeling particularly overwhelmed, try this relaxation exercise. Put some soft music on , sit down, and close your eyes. Concentrate on taking long, deep breaths. Focus your mind only on what is happening within your body. Feel the expansion and contraction of your ribcage as you breathe. When your mind wanders off, bring it back. Do this for a few minutes a day to calm your body.

If you have more time, read a book. Go for a run. Take a nap. Recharge your batteries, so you don’t shut down from exhaustion. Last week, I celebrated the end of AP exams by giving myself an entire night without thinking about homework, or school, or anything remotely resembling a responsibility. I went out with some friends for the night, watched a movie and got dinner. It was blissful. Schedule a reward like that for yourself, and remind yourself of the date as motivation for you to push through this last stretch.

5. You might fail. Everything might not be okay.

I can’t tell you that everything will be okay, that it will all work out in the end and that you have nothing to worry about. If that was true, none of us would ever feel any stress. We feel anxious because sometimes we should. There are points in our lives where our actions matter a lot, and high school is one of them. Your classes are important, as is your soccer tournament, your theatre production, and your science fair. So if you don’t do as well as you wanted to in some of those activities, it’s going to be feel like a punch in the stomach. Still, that doesn’t mean that you can’t try again. It doesn’t mean that you should give up hope.

6. Because nothing is the end of the world. (Except nuclear war. That would probably be the end of the world.)

You’re going to get through it, whatever your personal “it” might be. If you’re a perfectionist like me, cut yourself some slack. Not everything is going to be perfect. In fact, probably nothing is going to be perfect. But that is fine. Really. I promise. Just take a deep breath and tell yourself this: I will survive.